J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Midlands 1830 > Kenilworth Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dudley: The Castle, Priory and St Thomas's Church from Wren's Nest Hill 1830

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dudley: The Castle, Priory and St Thomas's Church from Wren's Nest Hill’ 1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Verso:
Dudley: The Castle, Priory and St Thomas’s Church from Wren’s Nest Hill 1830
D22086
Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 57a
Pencil on white wove paper, 120 x 203 mm
Partial watermark ‘nard | 20’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg was unsure whether this drawing showed Tamworth (see under folio 52 verso; D22072; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 51c) or Dudley.1 As part of unpublished Turner research informed by local knowledge, Dr Bernard Richards has confirmed it as a Dudley subject.2 Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, the view is to the south-east, with the ruins of Dudley Priory and nearby Priory Hall on the right with the spire of St Thomas’s Church beyond, and Dudley Castle on the skyline at the centre, seen from Wren’s Nest Hill. There are similar views on the recto (D22085) and on folio 60 recto opposite (D22087; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 58). Compare the sequence in the contemporary Birmingham and Coventry sketchbook (Tate D22416–D22425; Turner Bequest CCXL 49a–54 recto).
For other views of Dudley see under folio 23 recto (D22016).

Matthew Imms
August 2013

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.731.
2
Conversation with the author, 14 May 2013.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Dudley: The Castle, Priory and St Thomas’s Church from Wren’s Nest Hill 1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dudley-the-castle-priory-and-st-thomass-church-from-wrens-r1148727, accessed 23 September 2024.